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From Scholastica, Onyeka Makurdi
Teachers in Benue State have appealed to the state government to pay them outstanding salary arrears to ameliorate their sufferings.
Some of the teachers who spoke to our correspondent in Makurdi said, while those in primary schools were owed between 14 and 15 months, those in secondary schools were also owed salaries running into about 10 months.
A primary school teacher who did not want to be named told Daily Sun reporte, “In 2017, we were paid just two months, January and February, and we were owed for 10 months. Then, personally, in 2021, they were owing me September salary, others are different. In 2022, they were owing December again and then this year, 2023, they have not paid us since January and this year we don’t know when to collect it.”
Another primary school teacher also expressed pain over the non-payment of salaries, saying, “I have lost count of how many months I’m being owed because counting the months gives me emotional stress.
“In 2022, we did not receive December up till now; the last we got was for November and for some others it’s more than December, and March is going and we have not received any salary for the year 2023.”
She said the condition was not only affecting them as teachers but also hampering the quality of teaching the children were getting in schools.
“The situation is bad. We are suffering and just managing to get to school and I think the children are suffering more. We are only managing to teach. Most times, we don’t have money to even pay for transport and, even if we manage and get to school, we are not motivated to teach. So, it’s affecting the quality of education in Benue State.”
At the secondary school level, a teacher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said teachers in Benue were borrowing to buy food. The teacher said, from 2017 till February 2023, they were owed for eight months.
She said money was also being deducted for housing, pension and other matters.
They unanimously expressed dissatisfaction with the mode of payment, where the government pays them one month and skips one or two other months before paying them again.
“Teachers are facing challenges. We have children that we pay their school fees and some of us don’t have our own houses yet, we pay rent. We need to feed and do other things but we are not able to do them. Some of us are strangers and it’s work that brought us, we don’t have a place to farm, so we buy food, and, ourselves, pay hospital bills and so we need money.
“Most of us are even thinking of going back to the village because the condition is too bad for us to endure.
“It’s also affecting the quality of teaching that the students are getting. Before now, I was teaching at LGEA Primary School, in Wurukum, the transport was so high, then I got transferred close to where I stay.
“With the fuel and cash situation, my transport is still between N400 and N500 a day. Even without the payment, I have been using monies I would need for feeding my family on transport and because of that I can’t go to work every day even though I want to.
“You need to go to school and see the attendance of teachers. It’s poor and it’s because of transport. This situation is affecting teaching and learning in Benue.”
The teachers appealed to the state government to prioritize payment of salaries to boost the morale of teachers towards teaching.
They also said that teachers should be transferred to schools around their residence to make it easier for them to reach their place of work.
“When I started work, they asked where I lived and that informed my posting then but that was in the past. These days they transfer you without recourse to your location. Government can help us by sending us to places where we can trek to school when we don’t have money.
“Benue State is a civil service state and when salaries are not paid nothing moves. I think every government should prioritize payment of salaries and ensure promotions done when due and back it up with full monetary benefits,” they said.
The teachers also called on the leadership of the Nigerian
Union of Teachers (NUT) in the state to speak out more on the welfare of its members.
When contacted, the chairman of NUT in Benue State, Levi Aguma, promised to call back. But at the time of this report he did not answer his calls or reply to the messages sent to his phone.
Meanwhile, the Benue State Commissioner of Education, Saawuan Tarnongo. has blamed the situation, particularly, the delay of the 2017 salary, on recession and dwindling resources from the federation account.
He said the labour union at that time agreed on automating salaries, instead of paying half salary; where they skipped one month and paid the next one full, saying that made the salaries of both staff of local government, primary school teachers, and even state workers to have some months outstanding.
The commissioner stated that while public servants in the state were owed five months, the local government staff and teachers were owed between eight and nine months.
He noted that there were cases of omission of payment of some teachers explaining that the state Governor Samuel Ortom has directed the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to work with the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education, (SUBEB), to clear those omissions.
The education commissioner said the Benue state government has in the past made efforts to get bonds to clear the salaries but such efforts have been frustrating even when some states and the federal governments collected loans to pay salaries.
Tarnongo who noted that the salary issue is one that affects the entire workforce of the state assured the teachers that they are not being singled out for non-payment of salaries saying the Governor Ortom-led administration has the interest of teachers at heart and would do everything humanly possible to offset their entitlements despite the dwindling resources.
